Baroness Ashton of Upholland: Service personnel serving overseas are able to vote by either post or proxy. In addition the Ministry of Defence, in association with the independent Electoral Commission, have been running a publicity campaign to inform service personnel of the voting arrangements. This includes a leaflet, outlining the respective voting options, and a postal and proxy vote application form being distributed to service personnel.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: The Women and Equality Unit maintains a continuous and open dialogue with ethnic minority communities in close collaboration with the officials from the Home Office.
	In particular, Ministerial colleagues from the DTI and Home Office wrote on 18 March to a cross-section of black and minority ethnic community representatives, inviting them to join a new race equality group. This group will advise on both the work on the Discrimination Law Review and the transitional arrangements and priorities for race equality and race relations, within the context of the establishment of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR).
	It is hoped that the first meeting of this group will take place in May. Both Ministers and officials will participate in the work of this group.